NJ>PA>MI>IN>GA – catch us if you can!

Becoming grandparents on August 14 … four conference weeks for Jack in August and early September … start of the new semester in the last week of September … packing to get ready for our US trip …

It’s been a whirlwind. Right now we are parked in Easton, PA for a few days. We’re enjoying the sunflowers in the yard of Pat’s brother’s home, a big coffee from D…D…, and an amazing 82oF sunny day. Plus catching up on jetlag, emails and reading. Soon we’ll visit Pat’s home church. Like I said: a whirlwind.

We’re visiting the US for almost 4 weeks. The immediate occasion is the opportunity Jack has to present some of his research on religious leadership in one of the many workshops at the annual conference of the International Leadership Association in Atlanta in early November. We received a special gift from one of our supporting churches as well as support through ETF to make this trip possible. We’re combining this with a visit some of our churches. Here’s the schedule:

Oct 15-16, Stone Hill Church of Princeton, NJ (sorry we didn’t get our blog out before this weekend)

Nov 2-5, Pat back in Easton, Jack at the International Leadership Association conference in Atlanta

We hope to visit many friends. Don’t hesitate to mail us if we’re close by you to see if we can get together.

It seems that everywhere we go, leadership is a big need. In Europe, that’s because of the immigration and financial crisis, in the USA the immediate concern is the election. We felt very much spoken to when in our first church visit, the leadership set our sights upon a higher Kingdom that is surely taking root and sprouting new leaves, in spite of all appearances to the contrary. We serve our King and Savior Jesus Christ, no matter what happens in the early kingdoms we inhabit. May we all find courage to speak out for this kingdom everywhere we go.

PS: our grandson Manuel is doing well … but also a bit colicky. It so much reminds us of our first months with Laura. But his first smiles are priceless!